The personal experience of struggling to pay for a higher education inspired Annette Stoddard Freeman to create a college scholarship for older woman who want to return to school. Freeman created the HER scholarship. Here she is photographed at her Fox Point home in April 2004.
Journal Sentinel files

Annette Stoddard Freeman worked as an administrator for the United Way and as a counselor at the Counseling Center in Milwaukee and co-founded a college scholarship for women 35 and older.

Freeman made a difference in Milwaukee.

She died Friday at Saint John's on the Lake assisted living center at the age of 101.

Born in 1916 in Evanston, Ill., Freeman earned a bachelor's degree at Ohio State University in 1937 and a master's in psychology in 1939 at the University of Pennsylvania. She met her husband, Jack Stoddard, in Pittsburgh and they married shortly before America entered World War II. Later they moved to his hometown of Milwaukee.

Freeman's life changed drastically in 1968 when her husband, a prominent OB-GYN doctor, was killed by a falling tree in Milwaukee. She was suddenly a single mother of five children.

Following her husband's death she tried to enroll in the psychology master's program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee but was told by the department chairman that she was too old. She was 53.

Instead, Freeman joined UWM's sociology master's program.

"After (her husband's) death she knocked on the doors of the psychology department and she got the cold shoulder even though she had a master's in psychology. The sociology department became her launch pad," said her daughter, Ann "Brucie" Stoddard.

Freeman first worked as a counselor at the Counseling Center of Milwaukee and then an administrator at United Way. With a friend she founded the HER Scholarship Fund for women 35 and older enrolled in undergraduate programs at Alverno College, Mount Mary Univeristy and UWM.

Since the fund’s inception in 1996, more than 100 scholarships have been granted to older female students facing financial barriers to getting their degree, said Lisa Attonito, executive director of the Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee, which administers the HER scholarships. Recipients of the scholarships awarded through the gift from Freeman and her friend Sally Grootemaat have gone on to earn graduate degrees and open businesses.

Annette Stoddard Freeman is shown with her children in the late 1950s.(Photo: Family photo)

Attonito read one message from a recent HER Scholar who said “knowing there are complete strangers willing to support my success inspires me every day.”

“Of course you can quantify the initial gift, but what she does with that can have a huge ripple effect,” Attonito said. “We believe the HER scholarship program helps women gain economic self-sufficiency and long-lasting financial stability.”

Active Democrat

As a young mother and outspoken Democrat, Freeman was a leader in the League of Women Voters and the World Affairs Council. She and her husband publicly denounced Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s and spoke out against the John Birch Society in the '60s.

She later married Bud Freeman, a Racine real estate executive, and they traveled widely and built a lakeside vacation cabin in Algonquin Park, Ontario. She was remembered as a warm, friendly hostess and lover of big band music.

In a questionnaire she filled out in 1998 for a high school reunion, she was asked her aspirations for the next five years. Freeman wrote she hoped “to pass on to my grandchildren my love of learning, open to varying perspectives while maintaining values.”

Freeman is survived by her children, Frederick, Ann, Eloise and June Stoddard and Mary Trainor, and stepson Lou Freeman.

Annette Stoddard Freeman

A memorial service was to be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Saint John’s on the Lake, 1840 N. Prospect Ave., Milwaukee.